Need Minelab CTX 3030 Li Ion Battery pack

[Sandscoopdan]

My CTX 3030 Li Ion battery will not charge. Does anyone sell the Li Ion battery pack that goes inside the Li Ion battery pack or if anyone has a Minelab Li Ion battery pack that is still in good working condition, I would like to purchase it. I am still paying on the medical bills from almost dying from walking through flooded water and then getting staff infection that got into my blood so I have not been able to get out for the last few years. Could be why the brand new Minelab battery is not charging. I put an older one on the charger and the light stayed flashing green but after sending my CTX in, they upgraded the entire back end and let me know the older style battery packs do not work with it and I need to make sure it is waterproof.
Thank you,
SandScoopDan

 

[Gare]

Try cleaning with fine emery paper the contact tabs on the battery
Please report back if you try this

 

[Sandscoopdan]

Just read this so I’ll let you know what I find out tonight. What is the Emery?

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Many rechargeable batteries will not charge if the voltage drops below a certain reading. I have read about tricks you can do to either fool it into thinking it has more volts or manually charging it with a variable voltage power source until it exceeds the min. Voltage threshold, at which point your charger should work fine. Be careful, but with some research it might just work. Actually- scratch that. I recall reading you had firmware issues that was causing problems.

 

[Gare]

Some times cleaning the contacts on the batteries and the CHARGERS do the trick also

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Some times cleaning the contacts on the batteries and the CHARGERS do the trick also

Don’t quote me, but I think if lithium ion batteries drop below 2 volts, the charger will typically not recognize the battery. There are videos online showing how to save DeWALT batteries, but then again, with these batteries being such a fire hazard…maybe there is a safety reason they kill the battery at 2 volts?

 

[Gare]

Don’t quote me, but I think if lithium ion batteries drop below 2 volts, the charger will typically not recognize the battery. There are videos online showing how to save DeWALT batteries, but then again, with these batteries being such a fire hazard…maybe there is a safety reason they kill the battery at 2 volts?

I watched a guy on youtube. He cleaned up the contacts on the battery, The tool contacy=ts also and the charger contacts annd said it help a LOT to clean them all
'

 

[JosephElectronTek]

Don’t quote me, but I think if lithium ion batteries drop below 2 volts, the charger will typically not recognize the battery. There are videos online showing how to save DeWALT batteries, but then again, with these batteries being such a fire hazard…maybe there is a safety reason they kill the battery at 2 volts?

I have sandscoopedan's old battery pack, taken out the cells and BMS pcb. It has a ic chip that Minelab changed the firmware at an undisclosed date. The ic in question is bq20Z75. Even the Texas Instruments engineers who developed this chip were perplexed as to why they could no longer swap out the li-ion cells. Do a google search for this exactly:

BQ20Z75-V160: Necessities when rebuilding a commercial pack​

Very nerdy but a real document as to why this chip will prevent a pack from charging when certain conditions are met. The chip will no longer function as it will BRICK itself.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

I have sandscoopedan's old battery pack, taken out the cells and BMS pcb. It has a ic chip that Minelab changed the firmware at an undisclosed date. The ic in question is bq20Z75. Even the Texas Instruments engineers who developed this chip were perplexed as to why they could no longer swap out the li-ion cells. Do a google search for this exactly:

BQ20Z75-V160: Necessities when rebuilding a commercial pack​

Very nerdy but a real document as to why this chip will prevent a pack from charging when certain conditions are met. The chip will no longer function as it will BRICK itself.

Sounds like reverse engineering is needed. Why would Minelab have any interest in bricking the relatively inexpensive power source of an older detector? Hmm. Maybe they took a page out of the playbook of John Deere and Trimble?! It’s smelly stuff stuck in the tread of a boot worn into the house. First it’s - “buy new chargers and batteries from us, then it’s that part has been discontinued.” All of the mentioned companies make brilliant products.

 

[JosephElectronTek]

Sounds like reverse engineering is needed. Why would Minelab have any interest in bricking the relatively inexpensive power source of an older detector? Hmm. Maybe they took a page out of the playbook of John Deere and Trimble?! It’s smelly stuff stuck in the tread of a boot worn into the house. First it’s - “buy new chargers and batteries from us, then it’s that part has been discontinued.” All of the mentioned companies make brilliant products.

Yes, that was a John Deere move. Sounds like planed obsolescence with a sprinkling of protectionism mixed in, all under the obvious pretense of "product safety/liability"; but only Minelab knows for sure!

 

[mark v]

How is an old battery pack identified? Is there a part number or something on them?
I have about a 10 year old CTX battety pack.

 

[JosephElectronTek]

On sandscoopdan's battery pack, the only date available was hiding in the blue cell wrap inside the pack, visible only after removing the cells and BMS pcb. The date was 2012-02-20. There is of course a serial number sticker on the outer case above the pack's terminals, but unless you are able to trace serial numbers, it was not much help.

 

[JosephElectronTek]

Regarding reverse engineering of the battery fiasco, one needs to have several questions answered definitively before even considering the idea of reverse engineering the power sources of the CTX 3030. First, the age of the platform limits it's overall market value and share. Second, why doesn't the CTX have an external power connector which does not involve the use of a proprietary data stream? And third, the new battery replacement cost of around $150 US, puts a strategic price barrier to the reverse engineers. And Chinese and many other SE Asian countries are MASTERS at reverse engineering! And last, and maybe most importantly, what if the CTX processor has, buried inside it's firmware, product tampering/reverse engineering detection algorithms, possibly leading to a forced bricking of the CPU itself Can we be absolutely sure about that? I've said it before, and I'll say it again.......only Minelab knows for sure.

 

[mark v]

My CTX and battery pack are from at least 2020, possibly older. If my battery was to fail or, when it does fail, are new one's for an older CTX available?

 

[mark v]

My CTX and battery pack are from at least 2020, possibly older. If my battery was to fail or, when it does fail, are new one's for an older CTX available?

I see that the batteries are available still.

 

[Sandscoopdan]

They did not work for my machine. I did send this CTX in to be repaired and they said this was one of the first batch is made of the CTX 3030 so they got it and gave me a basic brand new machine so so basically now mine is from 2022. I think you don’t pull me on that. My memory is not what used to be but it was it’s a nice machine now if I can just get the damn batteries to work looks like I’m gonna have to buy a brand new battery and battery charger now I get the rechargeable batteries work fine but I heard that similar along the Alignment. They weren’t fully waterproof so if I get hit by a big wave, you know or see a little deeper in the water when I’m out there and chest deep water is gonna it may leak so I’m gonna do a test on it and fill the bathtub up as water and I’m gonna put the back one of those climb battery packs empty of course I’m gonna put to make sure the seal is good and cause I got two different sizes of seals. I got these thicker ones that seemed to work pretty good really good but it’s hard to snap the pack on with the sticker, I might get something that’s in between the two bands, but I’m gonna do a test on it with the thinner band tonight and see if there’s any water that please see you there with the alkaline battery pack it’s empty. I bet I can get a good waterproof. I know one of the main things that that I heard a lot of people I read in class book. A lot of people weren’t paying attention to the how it went in on the bottom part of the battery pack and so it was not it was it was not in place and when it’s not in place you know, of course you’re gonna get sand. You’re gonna get water in there and so when I put the battery packs on, I always do it facing you know below it and look around above and make sure everything‘s in place before I snap it in because that’s one of the main things that I remember caused water to get into my machine the first time that I did it again because I was using the wrong battery pack for that all of the machine so I am grateful that that they gave you basically brand new CTX 3030 as that that deal so that’s gotta find a good deal on a battery. It was just run run like some antelope batteries which I think this guy the antelope got bought out by Panasonic called Panasonic eneloop or something like that. Yeah Joe I’m gonna have to buy you lunch man and we’re gonna have to talk about this. OK I need to get some input from you on on both the alkaline and the lithium ion battery pack so let me know what you want for for lunch or something sometime or dinner or whatever cheers Dan aka
SandScoopDan

 

[JosephElectronTek]

They did not work for my machine. I did send this CTX in to be repaired and they said this was one of the first batch is made of the CTX 3030 so they got it and gave me a basic brand new machine so so basically now mine is from 2022. I think you don’t pull me on that. My memory is not what used to be but it was it’s a nice machine now if I can just get the damn batteries to work looks like I’m gonna have to buy a brand new battery and battery charger now I get the rechargeable batteries work fine but I heard that similar along the Alignment. They weren’t fully waterproof so if I get hit by a big wave, you know or see a little deeper in the water when I’m out there and chest deep water is gonna it may leak so I’m gonna do a test on it and fill the bathtub up as water and I’m gonna put the back one of those climb battery packs empty of course I’m gonna put to make sure the seal is good and cause I got two different sizes of seals. I got these thicker ones that seemed to work pretty good really good but it’s hard to snap the pack on with the sticker, I might get something that’s in between the two bands, but I’m gonna do a test on it with the thinner band tonight and see if there’s any water that please see you there with the alkaline battery pack it’s empty. I bet I can get a good waterproof. I know one of the main things that that I heard a lot of people I read in class book. A lot of people weren’t paying attention to the how it went in on the bottom part of the battery pack and so it was not it was it was not in place and when it’s not in place you know, of course you’re gonna get sand. You’re gonna get water in there and so when I put the battery packs on, I always do it facing you know below it and look around above and make sure everything‘s in place before I snap it in because that’s one of the main things that I remember caused water to get into my machine the first time that I did it again because I was using the wrong battery pack for that all of the machine so I am grateful that that they gave you basically brand new CTX 3030 as that that deal so that’s gotta find a good deal on a battery. It was just run run like some antelope batteries which I think this guy the antelope got bought out by Panasonic called Panasonic eneloop or something like that. Yeah Joe I’m gonna have to buy you lunch man and we’re gonna have to talk about this. OK I need to get some input from you on on both the alkaline and the lithium ion battery pack so let me know what you want for for lunch or something sometime or dinner or whatever cheers Dan aka
SandScoopDan

I would like to see what that alkaline battery case looks like inside, maybe it doesn't have "chip" inside watching over the terminals, maybe something "hack-able" to maybe put a li-ion cell pack inside the case and use an external generic charger. That way we can avoid all the Minelab monkey business with their chargers.... just thinking.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Regarding reverse engineering of the battery fiasco, one needs to have several questions answered definitively before even considering the idea of reverse engineering the power sources of the CTX 3030. First, the age of the platform limits it's overall market value and share. Second, why doesn't the CTX have an external power connector which does not involve the use of a proprietary data stream? And third, the new battery replacement cost of around $150 US, puts a strategic price barrier to the reverse engineers. And Chinese and many other SE Asian countries are MASTERS at reverse engineering! And last, and maybe most importantly, what if the CTX processor has, buried inside it's firmware, product tampering/reverse engineering detection algorithms, possibly leading to a forced bricking of the CPU itself Can we be absolutely sure about that? I've said it before, and I'll say it again.......only Minelab knows for sure.

Nope. There are always bored intelligent people. Eventually someone will hack it and provide a fix and share it for free. Until then we have $150 proprietary batteries.

 

[JosephElectronTek]

Nope. There are always bored intelligent people. Eventually someone will hack it and provide a fix and share it for free. Until then we have $150 proprietary batteries.

This platform has been out for quite a while now. And the battery issue has also been public also. But anyone can stick 7.2 volts to the back of their CTX and see what happens. I don't have a CTX personally. But I'm rather sure if it was that simple, surely it would have been done by now. BTW, eventually $150 will be small change.

 

[JosephElectronTek]

Yo Sandscoopdan, bring over that CTX alkaline battery case so I can check it out!